Tell Me About Her
by ShaniRona
Summary: Post A4 - the timeline is reset and they've defeated Thanos, but it cost Pepper's life. Tony is working on finding a way to bring her back, but someone has a few too many questions about their mother... Dad Tony sad fluff something or other. One shot.


This has full inspiration by RDJ as Larry Paul in Ally McBeal, thanks to the episode where his song flies out to see him and sue him, ha. It's uh...you guys know I'm better at writing angst than fluff. I'm sorry, this is literally like the worst thing I've ever written, but whatever.. I promise I'll make it up to you with a follow up to the A4 trailer one in the next couple days that'll be fluffy.

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"Missing? What the hell do you mean she's 'missing'?"

It was a stupid question. Tony knew damn well what missing meant. But he still asked, because panic was heavy in his veins the second he heard Rhodey tell him that, the second his wrench fell from his hand and bounced loudly off the ground below him.

"Jesus, Rhodey, I trust you to watch her for two hours, and-"

"Yeah, I _was_ watching her!" his friend insisted, and that's when Stark shot out of his chair and made for the hallway.

"Was," Tony concurred, "meaning the opposite of are, meaning you let her out of your sight-"

"I turned around for one second to grab the book she wanted to read, and then she was gone!" Rhodey insisted.

He followed his friend into the elevator regardless, punching in a top floor and then urgently pushing the button to close the doors.

"Friday!" he called angrily, and finally the AI stepped in.

"Yes, Mr Stark?"

"Come on, fourth floor, let's go!" he demanded, panic stricken still, but finally the doors closed and the lift moved.

"Right away."

"Fourth floor?" his buddy questioned. "We were on three."

"That's not where she'll be," Tony sighed, running a hand frantically through his hair. "Did you check four?"

"No...she knows how to work the elevator already?"

"She must've...figured out how Friday works, I don't know..."

But his friend was silent, knowing what that meant. The fourth floor was his private floor with Pepper. The private master bedroom. The private space that he shared with her, and their daughter. The room that was still left with crib and all, even though she'd since moved into a bed of her own next to Rhodey's room on the third floor of the facility.

"Fourth floor, Mr Stark," the AI announced once the doors dinged open.

But Tony hesitated, and Rhodey noticed.

"What's it been?" he asked after a quiet moment, softer and less annoyed now that Tony was done accusing him of losing his daughter. "Two, three-"

"Four years," Stark muttered under his breath, staring at the wall of the elevator as he tried to steady his breathing and fight off the panic attack that was seeping in. "Four years, and none of it makes any sense still."

"I can go, if you want," Rhodes suggested, but Tony cracked his jaw and stood straight, shaking the memories off.

"No, I...I got it..." he promised.

Did he really have it? No. He hadn't had it in four years. But he had to. He had to pretend, to make sure everything was okay with her, and the one time he thought it was okay to take some space, to...to work on a solution, to try... He had to try.

So he forced himself out of the lift and down the hall, regretting it with each step. But he had to make sure she was okay, that was his job. That's what he was left with, what Pep would've told him to do.

His hand shook nervously as he shook off another little bit of panic, and then proceeded to move into one of the rooms at the end of the hall - _their_ room.

And knelt beside the case, locked in the back, was the only thing that made his heart relax a little tiny bit.

"Morgan," he sighed. "What are you doing? Come here."

The fiery red hair of his eight year old daughter didn't move. Instead, she tried to open the door harder, pulling and tugging at it until he walked over and scooped her up, refusing to look at anything but her in his arms. He couldn't look at the room, not then, not now...

He took her to the hallway, where Rhodey was waiting, and plopped her down on the floor before he sank down himself across from her, his head leaning back against the wall. He exhaled, the panic washing away now that he had located her.

But when her blue eyes flashed back up at him with guilt, wet with tears, he felt it start all over, and he swallowed uncomfortably, forcing himself back up to place his hands on either one of her small shoulders, holding her steady. Tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, he felt his lip tremble, suddenly unsure of how to do this whole parenting thing.

"I want mommy back," she spoke first, breaking his heart.

"I know..." he muttered quietly. "I know, sweetheart. So do I... And I'm working on it, I promise. Okay, I promise, but you can't be going off on your own when Rhodey's babysitting you, and you can't...you can't come up here, you know that."

"Why?" she gulped, and he wiped a tear from her cheek as it fell.

"Why?" he repeated, his eyes going wide as he took in how hard that simple question was to answer. "Because, Morgan, you know why, you know..."

"You never talk about her," the eight year old protested. "I just wanted to help."

"We don't use the suits anymore, you know that," Tony scolded. "Okay, they're not safe."

"Just because you made a mistake on mom's-"

"That's it, Morg. I messed up. I messed up for your mom, and we lost her, and I'm not gonna let anyone else down. If we don't use em, we stay safe. And alive."

"If you use it, you can bring her back," his daughter pleaded, and that's when Tony frowned, looking anywhere but her hauntingly similar eyes.

He huffed, frustrated. "I'm trying, but it's more than just the suits, baby..."

"So try harder!" she begged, losing control of her crying. "I want mommy, I want..."

Not knowing what to do, Tony looked down in defeat. He fucked up. He'd missed a code on Pep's suit, he'd sent her into his battle when he was down, and he'd lost her after the timeline was reset. How he'd go back and fix this, he had no idea...but even four years working with the nano tech and quantum physics wasn't doing any good...yet. Sure, he had ideas, but nothing...nothing that could bring her back without disrupting the timeline.

"I'm working on it," Tony stated, his blood boiling with panic, but his daughter wasn't having it.

"Then why isn't she back?! Why haven't you found her yet?!"

"I can't work on it if I'm out here tracking you down in the middle of the day because you can't stay with Rhodey like I asked you to!" Tony snapped, and regretted it instantly.

"You're always there, you never care about me anymore!" she tossed back. "You make me play with Rhodey and you're always working! Mommy's gone, and so are you!"

Damn, was she smart for her age. No, it wasn't true, but she knew how to argue, that was for sure. And that...that came from him, he knew that well. Her temper, though...that was Pepper. All Pep.

And that's exactly what melted him. Because she was right. He was trying so hard not to be his father, and here he was, neglecting their daughter. But it was different circumstances, right? Right. This was for their family. This was...this was for Pepper, to find a way to have them all together again.

But instead of arguing back, he lifted his hand, running her hair back and gulping quietly.

"You remind me so much of her..." he told her softly, finally admitting everything he never had. "Your bright blue eyes, those freckles on your nose... You're beautiful, just like your mother was. And trust me, baby, I miss her every day. Every day that I have to say goodnight to you, every day that I have to tell you I haven't fixed it yet."

"I don't want to sleep in my new room..." she cried back, sad and heartbroken like Tony was at that point. "I want to sleep in mommy's bed."

Tony blinked water from his own eyes, looking around again to avoid eye contact, but he forced himself to eventually come back to her.

"With you," she added quietly when he didn't respond right away. "But you're always downstairs."

He laughed slightly at this, smirking at how in tune she was with what was going on around her. She was right; he'd been utilizing the couch in the lab as his bed for...well, most nights. And when he didn't, he usually wound up in Morgan's twin bed with her. But he refused to use the honeymoon suite he had built for he and Pep. It reminded him too much of what he'd lost...what being Iron Man had cost him.

And she read his mind easily. "You're Iron Man, dad...you can do anything."

His lips twitched as he flashed his eyes back at her forehead, running his thumb across the soft skin there. "I'll figure it out, honey, you just gotta give me a little more time..." He sighed, picking her up and standing, finally headed back downstairs. "How about a bedtime story tonight, and I'll stay with you all night, okay?"

She nodded, gripping onto his collar and burying her small face in her dad's neck.

Tony didn't know how to be strong, at all. But he was trying. He was trying for her, because Pepper would've wanted him to, and quite honestly, he couldn't fail another person he loved.

"Can you tell me about her?" Morgan whispered, yawning, and as he stepped back into the elevator with Rhodey, Stark agreed.

"Anything you want to know," he promised, placing a small kiss on her head. "I love you, Morgan Stark."

"Love you too, daddy..."


End file.
